Donald Trump’s scathing rhetoric about Latin American immigrants is galvanizing a movement in the community to pursue American citizenship and register in key battleground states. In what campaigners are calling a “naturalization blitz”, workshops are being hosted across the country to facilitate Hispanic immigrants who are legal, permanent residents and will only qualify to vote in the 2016 presidential election if they upgrade their immigration status. Citizenship clinics will take place in Nevada, Colorado, Texas and California later this month, with other states expected to host classes in February and early March in order to make the citizenship deadline required…

President Obama said the 2016 Democratic presidential primary will not be a repeat of the race in 2008, when he emerged as a successful insurgent challenger against the established front-runner, Hillary Clinton. “No … I don’t think that’s true,” Obama said in an interview with Politico, when asked if he sees Clinton’s chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as his alter ego in this year’s race. In his most extensive comments on the 2016 campaign to date, Obama conceded there are some parallels to the campaign he won eight years ago. He views the race as a contest between Clinton’s experience…

Port-au-Prince (AFP) – Haiti’s opposition presidential candidate Jude Celestin said Monday he will not participate in a planned run-off, calling it a farce with only one candidate. The January 24 election is the latest attempt to restore stability in one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the Americas. Since the end of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, Haiti has been jolted by coups and contested elections that have further undermined the fragile economy. After being mired for years in a political crisis that kept any elections from being held, Haiti went on an electoral marathon in 2015, holding…

A children’s picture book about George Washington and his slaves has been pulled by publishers Scholastic. A Birthday Cake for George Washington tells the story of Washington’s slave Hercules, a cook, and his daughter. It had been criticised for its images of smiling slaves, and described as being “highly problematic”. Scholastic said in a statement that without more historical context, the book “may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves”. The book, telling the story of Hercules and Delia making a cake together, had been released on 5 January. It was met with a barrage of one-star…

Banning Donald Trump from the UK risks turning him into a martyr, a Labour MP has claimed as the House of Commons debates the issue. Paul Flynn said Mr Trump’s call to ban Muslims from the US were “extremely dangerous”, branding the tycoon “impulsive and not well-informed”. But he said barring him from the UK risked being seen as anti-American. MPs are debating a petition, which has attracted 574,000 signatures, urging a ban in a crowded Commons event. Follow our live text and video coverage of the debate What is all the UK fuss about Donald Trump? Profile of Donald…

Hillary Clinton will address a Martin Luther King Day rally at the South Carolina state house in Columbia this morning in an attempt to shore up her support among Southern African American voters as a firewall against the surging tide of Democratic rival Bernie Sanders. With polls tightening in Iowa and Sanders continuing to show a lead in New Hampshire where he has a home advantage, South Carolina, the first state in the South to hold a primary, is increasingly seen within the Clinton camp as an essential buttress against the senator for Vermont’s insurgency. Clinton advisers are mindful that Barack Obama defeated her in…